A Russian soldier bragged to his mum about the gory torture techniques he was inflicting on Ukrainian prisoners, a leaked recording suggests.
In the tapped call, released by the Ukrainian army, a soldier named as Konstantin tells his mother Tatyana about Russian forces torturing civilians.
His mother appears unfazed when he opens up about the horrendous torture techniques they use to make sure they can't escape.
The call was translated on Twitter by eastern Europe expert Sergej Sumlenny, and captures Konstantin's boasts that he murdered and tortured people - and enjoyed doing so.
In part of the call he tells his mother how he has subject prisoners to a particularly gory torture in which he stripped the flesh off people's fingers.
Konstantin goes on to say that he also beat them so badly that their legs were broken.
Rather than admonishing her child for the appalling actions, Tatyana suggests that the Ukrainian victims must have been high - echoing a Russian propaganda line designed to dehumanise their opponents.
Konstantin regales his mother with a story of how his fellow troops captured an elderly man who had been riding around on a bicycle.
When they looked at his phone, the Russian soldiers discovered that he had been taking photos of their strategic positions.
He says: "We beat that old man to death, just with batons. To death. Can you imagine? How many times, how long it should take to kill a person just with a baton?"
When Konstantin admits that he enjoyed mentally and physically torturing the old man, his mother makes her own admission.
She tells her son that if she was in Ukraine she "would enjoy it too", adding: "We are so alike, you and me."
The mother and son duo then turn their attention towards Konstantin's father and her husband, who seems to be an object of their scorn.
The soldier jokes about subjecting him to the same cruel finger torture technique, to which Tatyana appears to approve of and says it would stop him picking his nose.
Konstantin then admits that he is "losing my s**t" in Ukraine, and that he has killed people during his time in the country.
"Are you sure they are people," his mother asks him before saying that he is fine.
"Yeah I understand that," he says.
"I'm not even feeling remorse anymore. After the number of murders went over 20, then I calmed down."
The Ukrainian military release not only including the tapped phone call, but photos of both Tatyana and her son.
